Friday, February 29

I've worked for my current employer for about a year and a half now; this is the only place I've stayed more than a year, other than the newspaper in Rochester where I was webmaster/tech lead for a little over three years.

I really like it here. I like the people, I generally like the pace, and I love the opportunities I'm getting to refresh and renew our styles, standards and practices, on a team- and company-wide level.

However, I find myself doing more and more administrative tasks. And finding myself in more and more meetings, in lieu of one of the directors going.

I fear I'm on the verge of the balance of my workload shifting away from predominantly writing code ... in some ways, maybe that's inevitable. In some ways, I kind of look forward to that sort of transition. In many other ways, I want to stay put, in the role I'm in now, without a heavy addition of responsibility and expectations.

Tuesday, February 26

Things are apparently moving rather quickly in the newspaper industry these days; the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle has redesigned their site for the first time since (months before) I left at the end of 2005.

I spent three years there as "webmaster"/technical lead. In that time, we added entirely new sections (Features, event calendars) to the site, and did a 100% redesign, which went live in early 2005.

And here we are, three years later, and they're finally redesigning again. With no obvious major additions to the site in the meantime. Wow.

I think this article makes the perfect case for Change Round-Up. Change Round-Up is the Coxsackie, NY startup I've been involved with for nearly a year now -- our tagline is "Making Cents of Online Giving™".

We make it possible for retailers to, with no cost to participate in our service, offer their customers, at the point of purchase, the opportunity to donate their spare change to a charity of choice.

Tuesday, February 19

Sure, they had "academic" rates -- but $40 or $60, even for a piece of $300+ software, is still a big chunk of change for someone unemployed, or underemployed.

As a primarily Microsoft developer, I think this is great for students.

Is it Microsoft making further efforts at marketing to students? No doubt about it. I still think it's a good thing for students -- run Linux, run Windows, get to know Eclipse, get to know Visual Studio, get to know MySQL, get to know Oracle, get to know SQL Server, get to know whatever you get your hands on, because in software engineering, experience is your true education.

"The jumble of cars blocked all three lanes and was as long as a football field."

"Wheels were ripped off of cars. There were pieces of metal. It looked like a NASCAR accident."

I lived in Rochester for nine years. No matter what the weather, there were always a number of idiots driving 80 in 55s, bombing in and out of other cars. Maybe it's the high concentration of idiot college students who have yet to get over their adolescent sense of invincibility, and angry, unemployed people.

Friday, February 8

I've had my Jawbone for some time now, more than long enough to put it through its paces.

Honestly, it's not worth the $119.99 retail price -- you can get solid Jabra and Motorola for half to three-quarters of that, with comparable overall performance, and better sound quality in your ear.

That said, while I wouldn't buy one again, I do find it to work reasonably well for most uses most of the time. In conjunction with Microsoft Voice Command, it offers decent voice activated calling, though far from perfect. It would be nice if there was an auditory indication that you or the other party picked up a ringing call however -- there have been a few times I've been caught off guard, having no idea someone had picked up, or I had picked up, because there was only silence, no feedback, from the headset.

Today, however, I suffered a bit of a setback -- the ear piece, the spindly alloy piece that inserts into the headset, and wraps around your ear, broke on me. While attempting to stick it behind my ear like I have hundreds of times previously, it snapped, leaving a piece embedded in the headset. I've removed that piece using a paperclip, so I have the option at least to switch ears and use the mirrored earpiece from the original packaging.

Thursday, February 7

This item worked well for the first week I used it; then, for the first time, I let it completely air out and dry out, and it hasn't functioned properly since. I now have a $30+shipping water bottle with all the features of a $7 water bottle. Whattadeal!

It is now a struggle to get the water meter to actually recognize any, much less all, of the water I'm drinking. It works intermittently, with no obvious reasons why it does or doesn't work at any given time. I've tried turning it on and off, flipping modes, resetting it, sometimes these actions help, but for the most part, this $30 piece of junk just sits on my desk, starting at me with its baleful LED blocks, laughing at me as I consume vast quantities of water, with nothing registering on the Hydracoach.

Some Bits About Me:

This is the pointless, rambling blog of a technology consultant, emerging technologies geek, SOA, cloud software & systems architect, as well as a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: .NET 4.0 Service Communication Apps (WCF). ***Nothing expressed on this blog represents the implied or explicit opinion, stance or view of any of my employers or clients, past or present.***